I wake up way before the sun rises. Thankful for my good luck, I take the opportunity to mentally prepare myself for Charon's training. I imagine he will be tough on me despite the fact I know next to nothing about fighting. I know that no matter what this day will be difficult. Even though i'm scared out of my mind, I feel a strange rush of excitement. I finally have a chance to learn how to fight and shoot a gun, which a day ago would have been the farthest things from my mind.
I also prepare myself to confront Charon on a few issues. I want to know more about him and his family. It feels wrong to pry, but I deserve at least a little bit of information after yesterday. He practically threw me into his home with no knowledge of anything at all. Thank god some of my nerves have settled so I can gather the courage to ask him my questions. I blame it entirely upon the good nights sleep and shower.
I arrive at his doorstep before the sun has even come up. To my surprise I find Charon seated outside in an old metal chair smoking a cigarette. "About time." He sighs, rising from the chair. I take a deep breath and try not to let his size intimidate me. Secretly I pray I haven't kept him waiting too long.
"Why can't you smoke inside?" I ask boldly. My hope is that if I start with a lesser question Charon might be more open. Charon shoots me an odd look, dropping the cigarette and squashing it with his boot. I gulp, hoping thats not my answer.
"Kate doesn't like it." He replies
Shocked that I got a reply, i'm rendered speechless. I thought it would take more than that for Charon to talk.
"Lets go." He says, picking up his pack and heading towards the gates of the city.
"Wait!" Charon turns back to face me, obviously a bit annoyed. "I have more questions." I say with uncertainty. Maybe I shouldn't be testing him so soon. After all Charon, and I haven't been acquainted for very long.
"I just..." I mumble, "yesterday left me really confused."
The giant ghoul sighs and adjusts the weight of the pack on his back. For a second I wonder if he's changed his mind about training me. I feel embarrassed that I even wanted to ask such personal questions. Charon and his family have been so welcoming to me, I shouldn't want for more than i'm given.
"You get one question for every five push-ups you do." Charon replies.
"What? I mean...you'll answer them?"
"You need to build upper and core body strength. Your legs are fine, strong from all the walking, but you won't stand a chance without bulking up." He says, "I'll answer them, but you have to work for it. We have to make up for a lot of lost time."
I look down at my wispy arms, one hand finding my skinny ribs. Charon's right, and here I thought he would teach me how to shoot today. I'm not ready to hold a gun by a long shot. Charon turns his back and once again heads toward the gate. This time I don't protest, I follow him out into the Wastes. As I watch the sun rise it occurs to me that I don't ever recall doing a pushup.
"Five." Charon says and I feel like my limbs are on fire. He's taken me out by the old houses dilapidated from age and nuclear war. The fresh sunlight coats my body in the harsh way it always has, beating down without a shred of mercy. I can barely get my question out i'm panting so hard, but I know exactly what I want to ask. I spent a lot of my time last night and this morning going over how few questions I could ask to get the most answers out of him.
"Why did you save us...me and the others?" I stare up into the face of the ghoul who released me from my prison. He urges me to keep working my muscles while he mulls over his answer.
"Shared experiences." He lights another cigarette.
I give him the strangest look. What sort of mutual experience could Charon and I both have? I've only had one experience my whole life.
I almost drop out of position and flop on my stomach at the realization: He saved us because we were slaves. I quickly straighten back up and continue pushing against the ground, but my head is still swimming. I look up at Charon through my shaggy hair, he won't meet my eyes but I know he can feel them. He was a slave? Ghouls are common slave, but Charon? He's huge. I can't see anyone keeping him subordinate. Suddenly I have a dozen more questions for him, when my next five reps are over I try not to stray away from my plan.
"How did you meet your wife?" This is a layered question, Charon can't simply answer it with one word. I smirk with triumph knowing that I will get a better answer out of him this time.
"She saved me." He puffs on his cigarette, letting out a huge cloud of smoke. I wait for more but more never comes.
Of course thats it, its Charon. Only he could find such a short, but apparently accurate answer.
"You...have to answer...better." I say, struggling with the fire running through my muscles. "That tells me...nothing...which means i'm working...for nothing." I no longer care if I upset him, i'm too determined. If he wants me to work for knowledge he has to be willing to pay up.
Charon chuckles and takes another drag, " I guess you're right kid." Theres a small pause before I get my real answer.
"We met when she was nineteen in Underworld. She gave the bastard that owned me 2,000 caps and we've been together since." He gives the smallest of smiles, "Best thing that ever happened to me."
"She paid for you?" Somehow i'm even more confused than I was yesterday. Why would a slave want to marry and raise a family with their owner? I've never heard of something so fucked up in my whole life. I worry that the loving family I witnessed the day prior was all a facade.
He doesn't answer me until i've completed another five. "She had to." Charon explains, sitting on the ground in front of me. "I must have a contract owner. My enslavement is very different from yours."
I push out five more.
"How so?" I ask. Surprisingly, breathing is getting easier.
"I have a contract. I was conditioned to obey whoever holds it, I do whatever they ask even if it goes against my personal feelings. It can not be destroyed, it will only die when I die."
I can't stop myself from ceasing the exercise. My stomach feels sick as I imagine what kind of horror Charon has seen. I have only experienced my personal hell for fifteen years, Charon has had at least 200 to suffer in his. And his fate, by comparison is much worse. Charon was able to free me, but no one can ever really free him.
He notices i've stopped and demands I begin again. I do as i'm told. As much as I feel for Charon, I am impressed by his willpower. If I were him, I would have probably killed myself knowing freedom wasn't even a possibility. I always knew I had a slim chance at freedom, but at least it was a chance.
My next question arrives, and I notice that i'm becoming more accustomed to the pain coursing through my body. "Does Kate have your contract?"
He shakes his head yes. I almost go about my business, but I see the look in his eyes. For once, Charon is not done speaking.
"Kate has my contract in a very secure location that only the two of us know about. Violet does not even know." The large ghoul drops his cigarette, reaches out and grabs my chin. My heart shoots from my chest to my throat in less than a second. He crushes my chin in his strong scarred hand, "I trust you, I want to continue to trust you but if you betray me, if you even think about looking for my contract I will make your death so painful and slow that you will beg me to take you back to your owner." His voice is a threatening growl. Those ice blue eyes sending a chill up my spine. "Losing my contract means losing my girls, it could even mean their lives. I will let you and anyone else burn in hell before that happens."
It surprises me when I feel tears running down my cheeks. I shake my head wildly and promise to the ends of the earth to never tell Charon's secrets. Satisfied, he lets go and asks me to continue with my reps. "Sorry to be so hard on you kid." He says after a while, "It's important I can trust you. I don't trust many people." Still getting my bearings I nod and keep pushing. I'm too embarrassed to look right at him, ashamed that he was able to make me cry. Despite that, I can only think one thing over and over:
I want to instill fear like that.
Charon has so much to protect, and he does just that. I can't even protect myself, but with his help I can have the means to keep something or someone safe. He really is someone to admire.
"What about Violet?" I ask softly. Part of me wishes Charon would tire watching me, but the other part wants to keep pushing myself to my limit.
"What about her?" He replies, whats left of his eyebrow cocked in question. It makes me feel embarrassed for even asking.
"I just meant...how did...I mean...ghoul's can't-" I stumble over my words like an idiot.
"She's adopted." Charon pulls a knife from his boot and plays around with it. "Kate and I found her in D.C. while scavenging, someone abandoned her there as a baby."
Suddenly the guilt I felt yesterday makes a painful return in my stomach. I had assumed that because these people were well off that they didn't know hardship. Obviously, I was completely wrong. I want to apologize, but I feel that it would only make matters worse.
I also gain more respect for Kate and Charon as parents. They essentially saved Violet's life by adopting her. They gave her a chance she never would have had without them.
Before I can reach my next five, Charon tells me we are done for the day. I suspect he's had enough of the constant questioning. I can't really say anything, he's been a good sport about it all.
When I get up my chest and arms sting something awful.
"You've got to stretch." Charon informs me and I do as he says.
"Thank you for talking to me." I feel its necessary, conversation doesn't seem to be something that Charon is completely comfortable with.
He smirks and shakes his head, "You caught me on a good day."
"I still have more questions." I inform him.
"Oh I know kid, I know."